Swimming for Shore

*Black Tide* Session 2

14JUN2072 – TUESDAY 00:00 Hours

SHADOWRUNNERS

Summary

After fragging up the abduction of Pavel Chernenko at his home, the runners hauled some hoop and beat their target to his next destination; the Black Tide Compound in San Leandro. With two minutes to spare the runners made some quick recon of the area (where Usagi had a close personal encounter with the Black Tide’s Black IC patrolling their little corner of the ‘trix) and set an ambush. Their plan was simple.. hide and wait for the Nightsky to show up, rush the car when the bodyguards opened the doors, pray to the Spirits that it’s ballsy and foolish enough to work.

00:02

Chernenko’s Nightsky pulls up as expected and the runners take position. When the doors open, they spring into action. Usagi sprints to the back of the car and rips off a pair of shots from his Yamaha Pulsar at the first bodyguard. The taser fails to incapacitate the giant human, but does give him a bad case of the twitches. The guard tries returning fire, but surprise and involuntary muscle contractions throw off his aim. Ravensight follows close on Usagi’s heels and takes a position on the other side of the trunk.. waiting for targets to emerge on that side. Kill-Face takes a defensive position at the corner of the building, her Remington Shotgun blasting the drek out of the open door of the car. IronSight, in a classic display of “letting your balls do the thinking” rushes the rear doors and at point-blank range lets his Ruger Warhawk start driving nails into the two bodyguards sitting on either side of Chernenko. The near guard suffers a very nasty GSW in the chest… the explosive magnum round tearing through his Lined Coat. The bodyguard on the other side is lucky enough to only be grazed, and dives out his door for some extra cover, only to suddenly fall victim to Ravensight’s spell, and melt into a puddle of Goo dripping from the floorboards. The Driver of the car dives for cover, torn between shooting Shadowrunners and screaming for help through his Commlink. The remaining guard, bleeding heavily through his shirt pulls his Fichetti Security 600 and returns fire on IronSight. The smaller pistol proves to be much less effective against the Adept’s Lined Coat than the Warhawk’s explosive rounds were against his own armor. While all this occurs, Kill-Face charges the car from her position at the corner.. blasting away with her shotgun the whole time, but the angry flechettes are frustratingly ineffective against the armored bodyguards. She empties the shotgun’s magazine and drops it to the ground, going for one of her Preadator IVs to finish the job.

Kill-Face pressing her advantage, jamms the barrel of the Preadator into the guard’s kidneys and pulls the trigger, only to discover that his Lined Coat is worth every Nuyen he paid for it. Ravensight casts a second spell upon the Nightsky’s Driver before he can fight back, or return fire but the spell fails to affect him. Seeing this, Usagi climbs over the roof of the car and fires his taser at the driver, missing as his target drops prone and scrambles under the vehicle for more cover. IronSight continues to trade fire at point blank range with the guard in the back seat. IronSight’s Warhawk proving to be more effective, tearing through the bodyguard’s armor while the Fichetti’s light ammo continues to flatten against the Adept’s lined coat. Badly wounded, the bodyguard drops his gun in surrender, rather than face more fire from IronSight’s smoking Magnum. Even as the combat swirls around the vehicle, Kill-Face’s wired reflexes permit her to aim her Preadator at her target’s face, but just as she pulls the trigger disaster strikes. The bodyguard, in a desperate attempt to save his life, spins wildly away from the gun, batting the barrel with a flailing arm. Kill-Face’s shot goes wide and slams into the inside of the armored car, ricocheting into Chernenko’s throat, and causing a spray of blood to fountain from the dwarf’s throat. Cursing her Karma, Kill-Face turns her attention to the driver cowering under the car, dropping to the ground, grabbing him and dragging him out, giving the hapless Mafioski a very healthy charge from her shock glove. Ravensight witnessing Chernenko’s wound, immediately calls for her healing earth spirit “Rocky” from where it waits in Astral space to attend to her valuable, mortally wounded asset. Rocky tries, but fails to stabalize Chernenko, announcing to the Shaman that even though it can stop the bleeding, it cannot return breath to the dwarf’s lungs. Ravensight, desperate, and running out of options, releases her initial victim from her Turn to Goo spell, and dives into the car, casting her own healing spell in a final bid to save Chernenko’s life. Her effort succeeds, and the dwarf begins breathing on his own. The rest of the runners pull the remaining bodyguards from the car and steal it with the unconscious Pavel Chernenko. As they speed off, the guards stagger to their feet in shock, calling urgent reports to their bosses. The entire abduction takes less than 10 seconds.

With Kill-Face at the wheel, the Runners speed out of San Leandro, and immediately begin an urgent search for a safe place to hide and ditch the bullet-ridden and blood-drenched vehicle. Ravensight tells everyone that Chernenko is gravely wounded and needs a hospital. Unwilling to give up the target they’ve worked so hard to secure, they brainstorm options. A street-doc, if they can find one would charge far more than they’re making for this run. Ravensight suggests a safehouse she knows of in the South Oakland Free Fire Zone where they can hole up and plan their next move. En route Kill-Face contacts Eddie Edwards in the hopes of possibly securing a Street Doc “for a favor”, but instead Edwards suggests that she simply slap a stimpatch on the near comatose Pavel Chernenko and interrogate him. Everyone agrees it’s a dangerous option, and the Stimpatch could kill Chernenko in his current state, but Usagi points out that Chernenko might have his own emergency medical resources, and they can use that as a lever to interrogate him; “Tell us what we want to know and we’ll make sure you get medical help.”.

The safehouse in South Oakland is little more than a gutted abandoned office building. The “safe” part is on the second floor, where there are some cots, mattresses and tables. Ravensight and IronSight are sent to make the dwarf as comfortable as possible while Kill-Face and Usagi head to the “Midnight Doc” 24 hour pharmacy to pick up supplies. Usagi Grabs a variety of things in addition to the strongest Stimpak he could find (SecondWind brand Stimulant Slap Patch from Medic-in-a-Box) including stuffers, a couple of towels, and some beach clothes for Ravensight and IronSight to change into since their clothes are covered in someone else’s blood.

When Usagi and Kill-Face return to the safe house, they hide the Nightsky as best as possible, driving it through a breach in the first floor wall and roughly concealing it with some discarded temporary cubicle walls. Ravensight took advantage of the distraction to run through Chernenko’s pockets and releive him of a 7000¥ Certified Credstick. After briefly discussing the direction their interrogation will take, the stimpatch was applied, and Chernenko bolted to consciousness, hacking out blood and brief words from his ruined throat. To save him further trauma, Kill-Face connected her Datajack to his to provide non-vocal communication and with Usagi keeping a sharp eye on Chernenko’s PAN just in case the old Dwarf attempts a clandestine call for help, the runners procedded to begin their questioning.

Faced with either receiving desperately needed emergency medical attention and the prospect of almost certain agonizing death, Chernenko chose to be cooperative, giving the runners his personal log-in codes, and detailed information about his office in room 601 of the Black Tide Bratva’s headquarters. The runners let the stimpatch wear off, and as promised, slapped the panic button on Chernenko’s DocWagon bracelet. Then in the stolen Nightsky, cloaked by an Improved Invisibility spell from Ravensight, the runners sped back to the Black Tide HQ, on the hope that the gang would never expect anyone to be so foolhardy as to strike twice in the same night.

Surpisingly, their plan to hide the invisible Nightsky in plain sight and infiltrate the building through the roof succeeded without any more issues than a tense moment or two of hiding from patrolling guards. Ravensight remained in the car and maintained her spell while the remaining runners silently (well, sort-of-silently in Kill-Face’s case) climbing the old fire-escape to the roof and sneaking their way past the automated security to Apartment 601. Usagi quickly and efficiently downloaded the paydata while Kill-Face and IronSight secured the hardcopy records of the Black Tide’s finances. A second trip back down the fire escape, and the runners get away (almost) clean. They ditch the Nightsky somewhere in San Leandro and IronSight torches it. Usagi quickly contacts Mister Johnson to arrange a final drop and the runners all leave for their respective flats and what they believe to be a well deserved rest.

IronSight is not asleep even two and a half hours when Brimstone gives him an emergency Comm. Brimstone has just learned that Knight-Errant has dispatched a Special Squad from the Organized Crime Task Force in Sacramento, and all the runners’ faces are tagged to be arrested and secured for questioning. Knowing it will take less than an hour for the Squad to arrive in the Bay Metro, and not much longer for Knight-Errant to find each of them and start kicking in doors, Usagi sets up an emergency drop at the Treasure Island MUNI Transit Hub at dawn. Mister Johnson agrees to send representatives, and the runners all arrive at about the same time.

Just as the runners spot Mister Johnson’s proxies in the milling early-bird commuter crowd, a Knight-Errant Aerodyne roars in, lights flashing and sirens blaring. Loudspeakers shout orders for all civilians to kneel and stay still. Almost all of the wageslaves in the terminal immediately comply, and the streetfolk, disturbed from their naps, immediately scatter in all directions, praying that Knight-Errant isn’t looking specifically for them this morning. Usagi and Kill-Face freeze, IronSight quietly slips into the shadows, in the hopes that he’ll go unnoticed and Ravensight casts and Invisibility spell on herself, evoking an immediate response of taser fire which misses and escalates the situation dangerously. Usagi offers a way to calm the whole situation by asking why K-E is after them. After several moments of very tense negotiation (where Usagi simultaneously talks Ravensight into complying with the K-E squad while tossing simultaneous insults at them. The Knight-Errant Lieutenant demands the Black Tide Data be handed over. Usagi bluffs that the Hardcopies in his hands are fake but that he’ll have the true paydata delivered to a location in the Financial district in San Francisco. The runners with the exception of IronSight ultimately agree to come peaceably. Knight-Errant takes them on board the Aerodyne along with the Hardcopy of the paydata and makes the short hop across the Bay. Kill-Face quietly palms the recovered Hardcopies while Usagi’s bluffing successfully distracts the Lieutanant and his squad. Once on the ground Usagi plays his last bluff, copying the digital Paydata to an optical chip and handing it over to the K-E Lieutenant, satisfying him. With threats traded for insults, the Knight-Errant Squad leaves the Runners in the middle of the Financial District.

The Runners quickly reconnect with Mister Johnson and finally manage the drop, earning their pay and a small bonus. Too tired to celebrate, each returns home to finally get some well-earned rack-time.